Labour market integration of newcomers to Canada: The perspectives of newcomers in a smaller urban centre

In Canada, newcomers are often faced with many challenges when integrating into the labour market. This study examined the labour market integration experiences of newcomers in Regina, Saskatchewan. Data were collected using a structured survey which was made available in several languages. A total of 305 (n = 305) newcomers participated in this study. It was found that length of stay in Regina, level of education, having children and lack of access to transportation had a strong relationship with newcomers' labour market integration (p < 0.01). Specific barriers that were found to affect newcomers included language, access to a vehicle, lack of Canadian work experience and Canadian credentials. These challenges have substantial implications for the well-being of newcomers and their contribution to the Canadian economy. It is recommended that resettlement agencies develop informed strategies and programmes that target these barriers to enhance the economic integration of newcomers in smaller cities in Canada.     

Citizenship education in context: student teacher perceptions of citizenship in Cyprus

This paper presents a phenomenographic study that was carried out at the University of Cyprus Department of Education, aiming at the investigation of student teacher perceptions of citizenship, nationality, community and their relationship with human rights. The study showed a continuum of perceptions about citizenship, which are discussed in line with the discourse on human rights and the culturally and politically contextualized understanding of citizenship. It is argued that, despite the fact that the meaning of citizenship in Europe varies, citizenship education for Europe must consider the special circumstances that shape different understanding in order to succeed in cultivating a multidimensional citizenship that goes beyond nationality.     

Learning language regimes: Children's representations of minority language education

Minority language education initiatives often aim to resist dominant language regimes and to raise the social status of migrant or autochthonous minorities. We consider how participating children experience these alternative language regimes by analysing drawings made by children in two minority education settings—a Slovene‐German bilingual school in Austria and an Isthmus Zapotec (Indigenous) language and art workshop in Mexico. We examine how children's drawings represent language regimes in the social spaces they inhabit. Considering these drawings in relation to ethnographic observations and interviews with educators, we illustrate differences between how the social spaces are planned by educators and how they are represented and experienced by learners. Generally speaking, the children in our studies depict flexible, multilingual experiences and spaces, in contrast to the educators’ agendas of separating or emphasizing languages for pedagogical purposes. Mexican children's perception of themselves as participants in fluid language regimes, and Austrian children's increasing appropriation of multilingual space over time through both (school‐like) routines and (fun) exceptions can inform the efforts of minority language educators.     

The ‘international dimension’ in social work education: current developments in England

As our awareness of the impact of globalising trends has increased, so too has social work's interest in international issues grown. At the same time, concerns have been raised about what constitutes international social work, and how this ‘international dimension’ might be introduced to social work students as part of their preparation for practice. This paper reports on a recently completed study which explored the different ways in which international issues are being addressed in social work programmes leading to the newly established three-year degree in social work across the UK. Based on an email survey of accredited programmes in England, plus a small number of follow-up interviews, findings are presented on the different approaches and innovations adopted in the development of curriculum with an international perspective. Discussion focuses on possible factors promoting and/or inhibiting the development of an international dimension within the qualifying curriculum. The paper concludes with some observations on how the different understandings of ‘international social work’ can contribute to a greater appreciation of global problems and alternative ways of responding to social needs at local, national and international levels.     

Cooperation between newcomers and incumbents: The role of normative disagreements

Cooperation in groups often requires individual members to make costly contributions that benefit the group as a whole. Prior research suggests that shared norms can help to support ingroup cooperation by prescribing common standards of how much to contribute. These common standards may be disrupted when groups undergo membership change, i.e., when members from outgroups enter the ingroup. When newcomers and incumbents have different notions about how much to contribute, a normative disagreement ensues that could undermine cooperation and the extent to which individuals identify with the group. In a laboratory experiment, we manipulate whether newcomers and incumbents disagree about how much to contribute in a public goods game with peer punishment. We examine whether normative disagreement between newcomers and incumbents affects newcomer-incumbent relations in terms of group identification, the emergence of a social norm, and costly punishment. The main goal is to test whether normative disagreement and the resulting newcomer-incumbent relations harm cooperation in terms of contributions to the common good. We find that normative disagreement between newcomers and incumbents negatively affects the emergence of a shared social norm and lowers feelings of group identification. Contrary to expectations, normative disagreement does not affect cooperation negatively. Instead, participants adjust their behavior to each other’s standards, using punishment for norm enforcement. This punishment is especially directed at low-contributing newcomers, leading them to conform to the incumbents’ higher contribution standards.     

Campaign for education in democratic citizenship, Guadalajara, Mexico

Since the time of the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910(views on when it finished vary between 1917 and 1940) Mexicohad been ruled by the same, single political party, the PRI(the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, meaning the ‘InstitutionalRevolutionary Party’), until it finally lost a presidentialelection in 2000 to the right-wing Party of National Action,after seventy-one years in power. The PRI had stayed in powerthrough a mixture of ‘clientelism’, ‘populism’,‘corruption’ and the rigging of elections and helda tight control on the whole of Mexican society. In its effortsto bring about social change, from the 1990s onwards Mexicansociety began to concentrate its efforts on challenging thedominance held by the PRI at the national, federal level. Adebate on the ‘transition to democracy’ took offin both academic circles and social and civil organizationslooking for ways to create a new and different kind of relationshipbetween government and society. It was in that context that,as with many other civil organizations in Mexico, we in IMDEC¹considered how we might best open up more spaces for the cultureand practice of democracy and motivate citizens to activelycampaign on those issues impacting on their daily lives. Theissue, however, was how to engage this participation differently,in a more festive atmosphere, breaking with formal traditions,in such a way that people would feel better motivated to becomeinvolved in actively addressing the problems that surroundedthem. In this article, I want to share an experience, whichtook place between April and August 1994, before the local electionsof that year, based on a Campaign for Education in DemocraticCitizenship.     

Child language brokering: challenges in Spanish intercultural education

Globalisation has resulted in multicultural and multilingual societies where individuals, who often do not speak the official language, need to communicate with different services offered by public institutions in the host country. School plays a vital role as an education and training institution, and must guarantee that every student receives equal opportunities, and, in accordance with the principles of intercultural education, facilitate the integration of foreign students both into society and the educational context. However, linguistic and cultural barriers may sometimes prevent communication between foreign students, their families and the education centre.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse survey responses and interview talk about communication between teachers and immigrant users who do not speak or barely know the host country language, especially the methods employed and the resources available to Spanish education centres to communicate with students and families who lack the necessary host language skills. A case study will be used as example of the situation in which both educators and families very frequently have to turn to child language brokering, using methodology based on qualitative analysis of surveys and interviews carried out in two primary schools in the Madrid area.     

The state and my happiness: Youth mental health,citizenship education and discursive contestations in contemporary Indonesia

Complementing studies on youth mental health that were mainly depoliticised, this article offers a discursive examination of youth mental health in an Indonesian educational context. We argue that subject positions enabled by the discourse of mental health were at odds with dominant constructions of an ideal Indonesian citizen. Drawing upon qualitative data from 22 teachers and 20 students in a junior high school in Indonesia and analyses of educational policies and textbooks, we identified three discourses underpinning the ideal(ised) constructions of young Indonesian citizen, namely, neoliberalism, (masculine) patriotism and (religious) moralism and discussed how these inhibited youth mental health.     

Trends and issues in language policy and language education in Crimea

This work identifies and discusses developments in language policy and language education in Crimea since the peninsula’s incorporation into the Russian Federation in March 2014. Working on the assumption that post-Soviet reforms and changes in language and education policies cannot be understood outside their historical context, the article starts by briefly outlining some of the defining features of the historical and sociolinguistic situation of Crimea until March 2014. It then presents the changing linguistic situation of the peninsula since its accession into Russia and discusses present developments in light of the broader context of post-Soviet language ideologies, policies and practices. It suggests that the new Crimean authorities are following a double strategy: the imposition of monolingual educational and linguistic policies, accompanied by largely symbolic concessions to the demands of local ethnic communities.     

The erosion of citizenship

The Marshallian paradigm of social citizenship has been eroded because the social and economic conditions that supported postwar British welfare consensus have been transformed by economic and technological change. This article argues that effective entitlement was based on participation in work, war and reproduction, resulting in three types of social identity: worker-citizens, warrior-citizens and parent-citizens. The casualization of labour and the technological development of war have eroded work and war as routes to active citizenship. Social participation through reproduction remains important, despite massive changes to marriage and family as institutions. In fact the growth of new reproductive technologies have reinforced the normative dominance of marriage as a social relation. These rights of reproduction are described as 'reproductive citizenship'. The article also considers the role of voluntary associations in Third-Way strategies as sources of social cohesion in societies where social capital is in decline, and argues that the voluntary sector is increasingly driven by an economic logic of accumulation. With the erosion of national citizenship, Marshall's three forms of rights (legal, political and social) have been augmented by rights that are global, namely environmental, aboriginal and cultural rights. These are driven by global concerns about the relationship between environment, community and body such that the quest for social security has been replaced by concerns for ontological security.     

On the changing role of English language education: promoting respect for difference in the language classroom

This article argues for a more systematic and integrated approach to the cultural dimension within English language education in a globalized world, with the concept of culture taking on an affectively related and process‐oriented meaning. To this end, it suggests an approach for the development of the ability to decenter from cultural norms and behavior that previously have been taken for granted, within a social constructivist framework of learning. The study from which the article is drawn was conducted through action research in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom during the three final years of basic education within the Swedish‐medium educational system in Finland.

Artikeln förespråkar ett mer systematiskt och integrerat förhållningssätt till den kulturella dimensionen i engelskklassrummet i dagens globaliserade värld, där kulturbegreppet ges en affektiv och processorienterad innebörd. För detta ändamål föreslås hur förmågan att distansera sig från kulturella normer och beteenden som tidigare tagits för givna kunde utvecklas inom ramen för en socio‐konstruktivistisk syn på lärande. Till grund för artikeln ligger ett treårigt aktionsforskningsprojekt i ett engelskklassrum från åk 7 till 9 i den svenskspråkiga grundskolan i Finland.     

社会保险权的历史发展:从工业公民资格到社会公民资格

伴随着现代社会保障制度的改革与发展,社会保险权的发展轨迹也愈加清晰:从德国《1881年帝国诏书》中面向劳工阶级的书面性权利,到美国1935年《社会保障法案》中较为丰满的法定权利,再到1942年《贝弗里奇报告》描画的国民普享式社会权利,并经受住了20世纪70年代末以来新保守主义及其政策导向的考验,经历了从工业公民资格到社会公民资格的螺旋式演进。在这个过程中,社会保险制度呈现出的全民化、福利化和私营化趋向,已经、正在、未来必将继续影响社会保险权的发展。     

Implications for nursing of the new national curriculum in personal,social and health education and education in citizenship

This article examines implications for nursing of the recent Government initiative to revise the National Curriculum in personal, social and health education (PSHE) in primary and secondary schools and to provide education in Citizenship for children and young people. Health education is but one strand of child health promotion which is rightly the concern of multidisciplinary team members. This initiative crosses the boundaries of health, education and social policy. It presents the challenge of new health promotion roles for child health nurses working in partnership with teachers in schools where the central focus will be empowerment of children and young people to fill their potential for achievement. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intercultural education and communication in second language interactions

This article analyses intercultural education outcomes produced in the setting of teaching Italian as a second language (ISL) in an Italian school. Intercultural education is produced in interactions which are based on specific cultural presuppositions, i.e. expectations regarding learning, role hierarchy and evaluation of student performances. Sixteen hours of interactions associated with ISL teaching in a multicultural classroom were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed. The analysis highlights three ways in which cultural diversity becomes meaningful. First, cultural diversity is constructed as one task of learning. Second, cultural diversity is constructed as conflictive interaction. Third, cultural diversity is constructed as a point of departure for positive school performance. These three ways of giving meaning to cultural diversity reveal a prevailing ethnocentric form of ISL teaching, as a consequence of educational presuppositions which do not take the difficulties of intercultural communication seriously. Recently, ‘dialogue’ has been invoked to address ethnocentrism; however, the conditions of effective intercultural dialogue are uncertain.

Questo articolo analizza l’educazione interculturale prodotta nell’insegnamento dell’italiano come seconda lingua (ISL) in una scuola italiana. L’educazione interculturale è realizzata in interazioni che sono basate su specifici presupposti culturali, che sono aspettative di apprendimento, di gerarchie di ruolo e di prestazioni degli studenti. L’educazione interculturale si occupa del problema della diversità culturale, basata su presupposti culturali diversi che emergono nella comunicazione. Sono state audioregistrate, trascritte e analizzate 16 ore di interazione durante l’insegnamento di ISL in una classe multiculturale: l’analisi ha evidenziato tre modi in cui la diversità culturale è resa significativa. La diversità culturale è costruita anzitutto come compito di apprendimento, in secondo luogo come interazione conflittuale, infine come punto di partenza per conseguire una prestazione scolastica positiva. Questi tre modi di costruire la diversità culturale rivelano una forma prevalente di tipo etnocentrico per l’insegnamento ISL, che è una conseguenza di presupposti educativi che non permettono di prendere seriamente le difficoltà della comunicazione interculturale. Recentemente, si è proposto di usare il ‘dialogo’ per superare l’etnocentrismo; tuttavia c’è incertezza sulle condizioni di un dialogo interculturale efficace.     

English language learning in the Japanese higher education sector: towards internationalisation

The graduate attribute ‘global competence’ is increasingly viewed as a significant learning outcome of a tertiary education. In Japanese higher education, global competence appears to be a lesser priority despite Japan becoming increasingly pluralistic. This article explores how adjunct foreign English language teachers (AFELT) encourage global competency in their classes. Data were drawn from 43 participants across 66 Japanese universities through focus groups and interviews. The research revealed that the positionality of AFELT on the margins institutionally had both affordances and constraints. First, being on the margins meant that AFELT had significantly lower status both institutionally and in students’ eyes, and AFELT were consequently constrained by these views. Second however, and paradoxically, distance from university hegemonic practices also provided affordances for AFELT in disrupting them. AFELT highlight that their pedagogical practices, while constrained, are both subversive and necessary in achieving students’ intercultural and global competencies.     

Making sense of the new geography of citizenship: Fragmented citizenship in the European Union

Theory and Society -